^'^'- ^yg^'^'l Cyclones and Bird Bestrucfion. 73 



In the recent cyclone which took place at Mackay, on the 

 coast of North Queensland, the damage done to the small 

 bird-life can hardly be reahzed. Probably many thousands of 

 birds have been killed. The following note from our member, 

 Mr. E. M. Cornwall, will give a httle idea of the havoc 

 wrought : — " One of the saddest features of the storm is the 

 loss of bird-life. The deadly stillness of the bush is to me 

 simply awful. Lying round about my place there are a pair 

 of Leach's Kingfishers {Dacelo leachi), a pair of Koel Cuckoos 

 [Centropus phasianus), two or three Crows [Corvus coyonoides), 

 and one Black Butcher-Bird {Cr adieus quoyi). All the hundreds 

 of Honey-eaters, &c., that were in the habit of coming mto 

 the garden are utterly gone ; the Doves, which used to come 

 into the yard and feed with the fowls, are also gone, and I 

 fear greatly that it will be a long, long time before we shall see 

 the fluttering wings and hear the cheerful twitter and whistle of 

 our httle friends again. You will be glad to know that my col- 

 lection did not come to grief. When the house came down, with 

 the piles on which it stood, it fell so gently that we barely felt it : 

 the roar of the cyclone drow^ned all the noise of falling, and not 

 one single egg in my cabinet was out of place." Another 

 member, Mr. W. G. Harvey, states that, " sad to relate, the 

 birds and beasts are nearly all gone, and, as the country has 

 been devastated for about 100 miles on either side of Mackay, 

 I fear that it will be some years before we can hope to have a full 

 complement of birds in our district." — D. Le Souef, C.M.Z.S. 



Stray Feathers. 



Flight of Galahs. — The accompanying photograph was taken in 

 1910 by Mr. F. C. Morse, R.A.O.U., at a place 35 miles north of 

 Maxwellton, on the Townsville-Cloncurry railway. North Queens- 

 land. The Rose-breasted Cockatoos or Galahs [Cacatita rosei- 

 capilla) are nomadic, and appear at times in immense flocks. 



Albino Birds. — It is interesting to notice the albino phases 

 of some of our birds. In Parrots, for instance, where the 

 red never changes, the green becomes yellow and the blue white ; 

 green and blue are both composite colours. In other birds that are 

 shades of black and white the bird becomes pure white, as, for 

 instance, the Emu, Crow, Magpie, Eagle, Hawk, &c. I have 

 never yet heard of a white Bower-Bird, but in any case albinos 

 of any birds are very rare, and, being conspicuous, may soon be 

 killed by birds of prey. A white Magpie often has trouble in 

 securing a mate ; the other birds of his kind evidently do not 

 recognize their companion in his new dress. An albino Eagle 

 we had for some years occasionally grew an ordinary-coloured 



